Chapter 14: Effective Delegation

Chapter 14: Effective Delegation and How to Assign Work

• This chapter focuses on effective delegation in the workplace.
• The key to leadership effectiveness lies in delegation.
• Leaders can multiply personal effectiveness by delegating authority to their employees.
• Effective delegation is a skill that needs to be learned by leaders.
• A useful framework to learn delegation is the three Ds: Do, Delegate, and Ditch.

Learning Objectives

• Multiplying personal effectiveness by delegating authority
• Understanding the rules for effective delegation
• Knowing how to give orders
• Identifying skill types for each management level
• Understanding person-position fit based on personality and job types

Introduction

• Leaders improve team success by unleashing employee energies through delegation.
• Bill Gates's leadership challenge: develop employees, transfer skills.
• Successful leaders use delegation to boost their team's success beyond what's possible otherwise.
• Effective leadership involves choosing pulling up through delegation rather than pushing down through intimidation.

Introduction (continued)

• Reasons for failing to delegate include: not knowing how; not believing employees can do the job as well; and not trusting their employees.
• Failure to delegate must be corrected by leaders so that they can delegate well.
• Delegation allows leaders to focus on developing direction, resources, and motivation in their teams.
• Delegation prepares individuals for challenging tasks and greater responsibility.

The Steps for Effective Delegation

• Choose the right person for the task.
• Clearly define the task.
• Gather input from the person performing the task.
• Provide necessary resources and authority to perform the task.
• Use checkpoints to measure task progress.
• Hold employees accountable and reward results.

Rules for Effective Delegation (Part 1)

• Sharing power with employees is an essential rule.
• Focus on tasks that employees will benefit from rather than burdening them with bad jobs.
• Fully understand each employee's abilities and limitations.
• Consider delegation as a powerful tool for employee development.
• Support employees in their delegated tasks.
• Delegate decisions to the appropriate level, empowering employees.

Rules for Effective Delegation (Part 2)

• Ensure fair delegation of work among all employees.
• Delegate jobs consistently.
• Clearly delineate complete tasks and allow ample time for completion.
• Prioritize clear communication for proper delegation.
• Utilize questions effectively during delegation.
• Explain assignment importance for optimal understanding.
• Learn to understand and manage varied employee work styles.
• Avoid delegating tasks that are personal, pet projects, etc.

Rules for Effective Delegation (Part 3)

• Follow the three D's for all tasks: do, delegate, and ditch.
• Delegate promptly to competent employees.
• Eliminate unimportant tasks or steps.
• Delegation builds personal effectiveness, develops talents, forges leader-follower bonds, and enhances job performance.

Assigning Work Effectively (Part 1)

• Consider employee availability and suitability for the assigned work.
• Avoid assigning the same task to the same person consistently.
• Ensure clear communication of expectations before assigning tasks.
• Accept responsibility for all assigned tasks and instructions.
• Ensure orders are met; otherwise, respect, confidence, and commitment will suffer.

Assigning Work Effectively (Part 2)

• Follow up with documented assignments.
• Use appropriate language to match the recipient's level of understanding.
• Arrange assignments logically with concise and clear instructions.
• Frame task requests with respect and professionalism, without apology..
• Provide clear and decisive direction, but use the appropriate tone to avoid dominance.

Assigning Work Effectively (Part 3)

• Offer individuals opportunities to ask questions and express their opinion.
• Acknowledge that confusion may arise, and questions are essential for clarification.
• Encourage employee input and ideas; this promotes respect and demonstrates a valuable leadership quality.
• Acknowledging employee contributions boosts their creativity and commitment.
• Track progress regularly, and adjust assignments as needed.

Person-Position Fit

• Develop a PAP (performance, attitude, and psycho-social compatibility) framework to assess suitability for an individual in specific roles.
• A good fit in terms of performance, attitude, and psychology of work, benefits both the employee and the organization.
• The desired payoff is high morale and improved work performance.

Personality and Occupational Types (Part 1, Realistic)

• Realistic individuals prefer outdoor work and physical tasks.
• Sample Jobs: engineer, surveyor, farmer, electrician, mechanic.
• High-stress activities: taking on public speaking engagements.

Personality and Occupational Types (Part 2, Investigative)

• Investigative individuals enjoy research and discovery, favoring detail and independent work.
• Sample Jobs: biologist, chemist, physicist, anthropologist, geologist.
• High-stress activities: interacting in social settings including parties.

Personality and Occupational Types (Part 3, Artistic)

• Artistic individuals thrive in self-expression in artistic settings, and tend towards creativity, impulse, and innovation.
• Sample Jobs: artist, writer, decorator, actor, composer.
• High-stress situations: following rules and regulations.

Personality and Occupational Types (Part 4, Social)

• Social individuals prefer to work with others, valuing their well-being and showing little interest in hands-on, technical tasks.
• Sample Jobs: teacher, counselor, social worker, advisor, therapist.
• High-stress situations: engaging in maintenance and repair tasks.

Personality and Occupational Types (Part 5, Enterprising)

• Enterprising individuals enjoy leadership, public speaking, and convincing others, often being impatient with routine and detail work.
• Sample Jobs: salesperson, business executive, producer, promoter, lawyer.
• High-stress situations: facing restrictions and limitations.

Personality and Occupational Types (Part 6, Conventional)

• Conventional individuals prefer highly organized tasks requiring in-depth attention to detail.
• Sample Jobs: accountant, assembler, banker, cost estimator, tax expert
• High-stress situations: situations where clarity is lacking, or where order is uncertain.

Management Roles and Skills (Part 1, Top Managers)

• Top managers set the overall direction of the organization and determine company goals, strategy, and operating policy.
• Top managers represent their company to the outside world.

Management Roles and Skills (Part 2, Middle Managers)

• Middle managers implement top management policies and control lower-level managers.
• Middle managers require relational skills over technical or conceptual skills.
• Middle managers drive innovation and productivity when decisions affecting operating units are delegated.

Management Roles and Skills (Part 3, Frontline Managers)

• Frontline managers supervise and control the activities of operating employees.
• Frontline managers coordinate, facilitate, and support the work of subordinates.

Types of Skills (Part 1, Technical)

• Technical skills involve having detailed knowledge, practical experience, and expertise in job-specific procedures and specialized tools, equipment and machines.

Types of Skills (Part 2, Relational)

• Relational skills mean having strong knowledge about and working positively with other people.
• Relational skills include motivating, coordinating, advising, supporting individuals and groups.

Types of Skills (Part 3, Conceptual)

• Conceptual skills involve having knowledge about and working with complex ideas and concepts.
• Conceptual skills include critical thinking, long-range planning, strategic decision-making and evaluation of ethical dimensions of decisions that impact employees, customers and government relations.

Figure 14.4: Normal Distribution of a Manager's Time

• Shows the distribution of time spent on four key management functions at different levels.

Management Processes or Functions

• The four key functions of management include: planning, organization, direction, and control.
• Planning: Set the overall direction, determine strategy and make policy decisions.
• Organizing: Aligning structure, people, and resources to achieve company goals.
• Directing: Supervision, coaching and motivating employees.
• Controlling: Tracking progress and making necessary adjustments as needed.

Moving from Doer to Coordinator to Thinker (Part 1)

• In the United States, exceptional individual performance is often rewarded by promotion to managerial positions.
• Success in management is often tied to organizational status.
• For people who were previously proficient workers, the transition from doing to coordinating things and thinking about concepts can be challenging.

Moving from Doer to Coordinator to Thinker (Part 2)

• Difficulty in transitioning from doing tasks to coordinating people to thinking about concepts can result in problems such as overpromotion syndrome described by Peter Principle.
• Overpromotion can lead to dissatisfaction due to lack of interest, skill mismatch, or inadequacy in the new role.
• This has negative consequences for organizations.

The New-Job Tryout

• The new-job tryout is a useful instrument to transition effectively from doing to coordinating and thinking.
• This will facilitate a smooth transfer to coordinating and thinking tasks by providing an interim experience in different types of work and in different roles.
• Solve the problem of retaining people in unsuitable positions.

This quiz explores the principles of effective delegation in leadership as presented in Chapter 14. Discover how leaders can enhance their effectiveness by learning to delegate authority and utilizing the three Ds: Do, Delegate, and Ditch. Assess your understanding of delegation rules and the framework for making optimal assignments.